February 16
Blind people like biwa players (zatoo) meet on Kyoto, Seiju-an 清聚庵 at Shinomiya Kawara 四宮川原 and pray to the Deity of Blind People Amayo no mikoto 雨夜尊. This is a memorial service to the fourth son (shi no miya) of emperor Ninmyo 仁明天皇 (810 - 50), who was blind. He was a good player of the biwa.
This area of Kyoto is in the "demon direction" kimon in the northwest of the town. The blind monks and people each one places a stone on top of the other to build a "stone tower" in memory of all the blind people of Japan. Blind monks recice the "Heart Sutra" (Hanya Shinkyo) for 1000 times.
Later they sing and feast.

a pheasant cries out
as a blind man crawls
across the bridge Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku is from the 2nd month (March) of 1818, when Issa was traveling around to various villages and towns near his hometown. In his diary at this time Issa has three hokku in a row about pheasants, of which the above hokku is the second. All three seem to be serious and based on close observation.

In the hokku, the pheasant has noticed something it feels to be important or dangerous, and it turns out to be a blind man (or woman -- the gender is not given) crawling across a nearby bridge. Perhaps it is a narrow bridge with no railing, or perhaps there is ice or cold rain on the bridge, making it slippery. In any case, the blind man decides it would be dangerous to try to walk across, and he gets down on his hands and knees and crawls across instead. The pheasant probably doesn't understand what's happening, but Issa seems impressed by the way it senses something is unusual or wrong.

The pheasant isn't warning of danger to itself, but it might be warning of danger it vaguely senses to another creature. Issa understands what's happening, and he may be using the pheasant's loud, sharp cry to suggest his own momentary worry for the safety of the blind man. There's no hint in the wording of the hokku that Issa is making fun of the blind man or comparing blindness to any form of benightedness or spiritual lack. After all, imperfection is the human condition, and Amida accepts sincere humans in spite of their weaknesses. Issa often compares himself to a beggar and calls himself a fool, and he is surely sympathizing with the man who is forced to crawl in order to stay alive. Perhaps the hokku is intended as a human form of crying out.

The word zatou literally means 'group leader' and is the lowest of four ranks in the organization created by blind performers in the Edo period. In addition to chanting ballads and plays, telling stories, and singing and composing songs to the accompaniment of various instruments, blind professionals were active in many fields, especially in acupuncture and massage. The term zatou can also simply mean a blind person.